Fraud poses a critical risk to the sustainability of injury and disability schemes across Australia. Behavioural economics is an emerging trend in encouraging better outcomes in schemes. Hugh Miller previews how these topics will be explored at the upcoming 2017 Injury and Disability Schemes Seminar (IDSS).

One of the nice features of IDSS, on in Brisbane in November, is that many of the talks provide up-to-date views on the new trends relevant to Schemes. Two of those issues are fraud and behavioural economics, which will both be well-represented at the conference.

Fraud and exaggerated claims

Fraud and exaggerated claims represent a significant risk to the sustainability of injury schemes, including compulsory third party (CTP) insurance, across Australia. Sue Freeman, Raj Kanhai and Geoff Atkins will be presenting on models of fraud, drawing on both local and international examples. They will also highlight particular risks for Australia, which has a relatively fragmented CTP system.

Jadon Fox will be presenting on the Injury and Disability Schemes Fraud Control Survey. The survey is an attempt to establish the extent of fraud across schemes, and how these costs can be reduced by applying fraud control and analytics. The survey also reveals differences in current practice for different types of schemes, and the opportunities offered by big data to identify, prevent and deter claim fraud.

Nudging better behaviour

A second trending topic is behavioural economics, which formalises the study of human behaviour and encourages better choices through ‘nudges’. These ideas have been used by governments and corporates in a wide variety of ways to improve results ranging from tax collections to water usage, and it is no surprise that there are interesting applications for injury and disability schemes too.

Katherine Gobbi, Alex Gyani and Kate Hunter will be talking about the results for behavioural economic strategies undertaken by EML and the NSW Government’s Behavioural Insights Unit. Their trials focused on understanding psychological need and providing more tailored support to clients. While there were challenges, the program has delivered significant return to work outcomes.

Basem Morris and Kranthi Nekkalapu will also be presenting on behavioural economics, =showing how it has applications to both return-to-work outcomes and fraud reduction. Their presentation will introduce behavioural economics concepts and provide examples of how these have been applied effectively.

The topics above represent exciting developments in managing schemes, and IDSS promises to be a great forum to learn more about them and improve practices across the country.